Twelve drummers drumming… …to recognize the great work done by Anawim Housing…and Margaret Toomey, who has done so much for so many…and the folks at Art Force Iowa, who change the lives of young people…and Anne Starr and the people at Orchard Place, who try to mend the lives of

What now for the Republicans in the state of Iowa? The Iowa Republican Party has never been stronger. It now controls both houses of the Legislature, the Governor’s office, both Senate seats and three of the four Congressional seats. It can quickly pass whatever legislation it wants, and what it wants

The Iowa State University Foundation has spent more than $1.1 million to buy out the contracts of two foundation presidents fired by university President Steve Leath. The two men were fired for no cause — other than the fact that Leath apparently didn’t like them. Both raised millions for the

That huge new contract the University of Iowa has given football coach Kirk Ferentz has a new wrinkle or two. Besides paying him a minimum of $4.5 million in its first year — that’s a bit more than 11 times the salary of the President of the United States —

UPDATE 8/29/2016: Steve Luebke was arrested for parole violation and sent back to Polk County jail on Saturday, Aug. 27. On Sunday, the court ordered him to be transferred to the Iowa Medical Classification Center in Oakdale with the order that he ultimately be sent to corrections facilities in Newton or

For the first time in close to 100 years — since the early 1920s — fewer than 100,000 people across the state now are getting the Des Moines Sunday Register delivered to their doorsteps or mailboxes. Sales at newsstands are declining, too. For the quarter ended March 31, paid circulation

John Pappajohn and the late Robert Noyce will be given the Iowa Award later this year. The Iowa Award is the highest honor the state gives to a citizen, though most citizens have never heard of it. It’s given by the Iowa Centennial Memorial Foundation, and most Iowans haven’t heard

The Gabus Family Foundation — that’s Gabus, as in Gene Gabus and Gabus Motors — wants back the $300,000 it donated to build a new YMCA in Grimes. Plans for the Y were scuttled earlier this year after finances couldn’t be worked out, and the nine-acre site was sold

The fight between Prairie Meadows and the Internal Revenue Service could last years. It will cost a jackpot in legal fees. And it can’t be settled unless the Polk County supervisors are invited into the negotiations. That seems clear. This, too, seems clear. Before this thing is settled, the Legislature

The six-year graduation success rate for basketball players who entered Iowa State University in 2008 was 75 percent. That’s pretty impressive. Except the actual graduation rate was 6 percent. The graduation success rate for basketball players at the University of Iowa in that same class was an